Jonathan Kimball, BiographyPorter County biographical sketches . . . .
Transcribed biography of Jonathan Kimball
JONATHAN KIMBALL.
The Buckeye State has furnished Porter County with many of her prominent men, and not least among them is Jonathan Kimball, a progressive and enterprizing citizen. As far as can be ascertained the Kimball family are of German extraction, the paternal great-grandfather having come thither from that country. It is supposed that Grandfather Kimball's name was Jonathan and all that the subject of this sketch knows of his father's people is that his father, with several brothers, removed to the Hocking Valley, in Ohio, at an early date. Jonathan Kimball, father of our subject, had three brothers: Solomon, George and Jacob, all of whom lived in southern Ohio. The father was born May 11, 1790, and was married to Hannah Reynolds, born September 10, 1797. They remained in the Hocking Valley until 1850, when they removed to near Ligonier, Indiana, where they made their home for a few years, at the end of which time they returned to their former home in Ohio. In their family were the following children: Hannah, born in 1811; Oliver P., born in 1814; Delilah, born in 1817; George, born in 1819; Nancy, born in 1821; Wesley, born in 1823; Mary A., born in 1826; Jonathan, born in 1828; Burton, born in 1831; James, born in 1832; Hannah, born in 1836; Amanda, born in 1839; and Lovina, born in 1841. Of these there are now living, Jonathan, Hannah, Nancy, Lovina and Burton. Jonathan Kimball, the subject of this sketch, started out in life for himself at the age of twenty-one, as a tiller of the soil, and was later married to Amanda Potter, a native of Ohio. Their family consisted of seven children, all of whom died when young, with the exception of Wesley and Frank, the former of whom is married and has two children, and the latter also married and has three boys living and one dead. Both brothers live near Holden, Kansas. After the death of his first wife Mr. Kimball was married in 1861 to Miss Malinda Wolf, a daughter of Levi and Eliza Ann Wolf. Mrs. Kimball was born March 24, 1842, and has borne her husband eight children, three of whom died young. Laura was born in 1866. The other children were Emerson, born in 1862; Effie, born in 1863; Elmer Ell., born in 1869; Alta Muesetta, born in 1873; Gerald C., born 1875; Dallas C., born in 1878; and Myrtle M. B., born in 1881. Laura married Lincoln Crumpacker, by whom she had one child, and by her present husband, John Vanslow, also had a child – Laura - who died in 1893. Mr. Kimball has been a farmer all his life and from 1850 to 1857 resided in the vicinity of Ligouier, Indiana, where he successfully followed that occupation. From that place he went to Cass County, Missouri, but after the death of his wife, which occurred there, he located on the farm where he now lives. This land when purchased was covered with heavy timber and amounted to forty acres, and this he cleared and sold. He later bought other tracts until he now has a fine farm of 268 acres, all of the improvements on which he made for himself, and which are of the best kind. He has a fine country residence and as good barns and other buildings as one need wish to have. Although his early educational advantages were limited he is a worthy representative of a class of people who, from the most unfavorable circumstances, have made their way in the world by their own individual merit, and now in his green old age can look back over a life well spent. He is a Republican politically, is a steadfast adherent to the tenets of the Methodist Church, and is in every respect a man among men in his section. His native sense of fairness and good judgment have placed him high in the estimation of the people with whom he has cast his lot, and no better example of the high type of American civilization can be found than within his pleasant and hospitable home.
Source: Goodspeed Brothers. 1894. Pictorial and Biographical Record of La Porte, Porter, Lake and Starke Counties, Indiana. Chicago, Illinois: Goodspeed Brothers. 569 p.
Page(s) in Source: 293-294
This biography has been transcribed exactly as it was originally published in the source. Please note that we do not provide photocopies or digital scans of biographies appearing on this website.
Biography transcribed by Steven R. Shook